Jack waiting to play trump card and be crowned king

TWICE over the last weekend, Jack O’Connor was questioned in public about his appointment as Kerry manager relative to the circumstances in which Páidí Ó Sé was replaced.

Both times he made it clear that it wasn’t “an easy situation” as it was Ó Sé who introduced him to inter-county management back in 1993.

Despite such circumstances, O’Connor has quickly adapted to life at the helm of a county still shocked by three consecutive defeats at Croke Park in the final phases of the championship.

One of the first things he did was to distance himself from the negativity surrounding Tyrone’s win, suggesting it had more to do with frustration at the way Kerry played.

After crediting Mickey Harte’s team with displaying a greater work-rate and hunger, it was clear that a change of approach would be a priority for O’Connor.

It’s fair to say that it has been a smooth transition, without a fundamental change of style.

However he enjoyed a less than glorious start to his new career as Kerry lost their opening League game away to Longford, after conceding a goal five minutes injury time.

“It wasn’t the start I was hoping for. It increased the pressure a bit,” O’Connor admits.

A win over Cork in Tralee one week later and the subsequent victory over Dublin in Parnell Park proved ‘crucial’ in restoring confidence.

Recognising that supporters are still unsure about this team, he argues that this is to the players’ advantage. It gives them ‘a serious’ motivation to perform on the day and put that right.

“There would be more pressure if they were raging hot favourites, with everyone telling them that they were a super team.”

One of those days of uncertainty arose in the Munster final replay in Killarney. They were in serious trouble until Dara Ó Cinnéide and Eoin Brosnan hit goals in a ten minute spell before half time.

“I thought myself at the time that this was a pivotal moment in the year, not just for the team but for the supporters as well. I felt especially when Eoin got the goal that it was the crowd that dragged us back into the game. It had a snowball effect because they got behind us as the momentum grew. We were not going to get beaten after that.”

Much of this debut championship has been marred by injury. Seamus Moynihan, Declan O’Sullivan and latterly Darragh Ó Sé have been ruled out of League and championship. But in a strange way, the squad has benefited from such circumstances according to O’Connor.

“The day we travelled up to Omagh to play Tyrone, we left a few players at home, including Seamus, Mike Frank Russell and William Kirby. We used a lot of subs and we found the lads were very competitive. We came away from Tyrone saying we certainly had a strong panel.

“At half-time against Derry we were coming out without Darragh and Seamus - the first time in the last seven or eight years that one or both of these players wasn’t on the field of play for the championship.

“The players themselves see it as a challenge and maybe over the past few years Kerry had been over-reliant on the lies of Seamus and Darragh Ó Sé. In crunch situations this year we have seen more players stepping up and showing leadership,” he added.

One area in which leadership will be needed is in achieving greater consistency.

Seeing their team ‘blow hot and cold’ hasn’t inspired confidence among supporters - almost to the stage that they won’t trust any team until they see them lift the Sam Maguire Cup. However, while O’Connor agrees that in both games with Limerick ‘they left themselves with a mountain to climb,’ he has seen a gradual improvement. It was evident against Derry, he says, when they opened up an early lead and rallied strongly after the northerners struck for goal.

The ideal scenario at Croke Park is for a good open game, with plenty of scoring and, of course, ‘for Kerry to come out on top.’ But, whatever about the outcome, he accepts that nobody can predict what kind of a game it will turn out to be.

“We had the league final early in the year, with high scoring and plenty of free-flowing football. But, everybody thought it was rubbish because there wasn’t enough hitting in it,” he recalled. “It’s hard to please the punters.”

He’ll know all about that some time after 5 o’clock on Sunday, if he’s looking up at a Mayo captain receiving Sam from a Kerry President.